∎ Read Gratis Strange Magic A Yancy Lazarus Novel Pilot Episode eBook James Hunter

Strange Magic A Yancy Lazarus Novel Pilot Episode eBook James Hunter

Download As PDF : Strange Magic A Yancy Lazarus Novel Pilot Episode eBook James Hunter

Strange Magic A Yancy Lazarus Novel Pilot Episode eBook James Hunter

I enjoyed the book and it certainly kept me interested, enough so that I sacrificed an hour of sleep last night to get to the end. So yes, go ahead and get it.

The storyline was fair, there are lots of hints at a deeper past and it's clear that there's a nice, complete world going on. Some of the suspension-of-disbelief issues were nicely wrapped up (with a wave of "oh, it's magic" but that's not unexpected in a book about magic). The character has potential, but there's going to need to be something to distinguish Yancy from the stack of other modern-day conflicted wizards that are out there. Similar with the storyline - so far, it's nothing to stand out of the crowd.

That said - I really hope the author gets himself a better (or second) editor. The number of spelling and grammar errors was truly staggering. (To be fair, the "spelling" errors that I noted were use of the wrong word - the passed/past mismatch happened at least twice, for instance, and a spell-checker won't find those - but a grammar checker might.) Perhaps his editor was more concerned with story progression than technical details - both are important - but I felt jarred every time I found bad punctuation, and it happened too frequently for a truly professional work. If you can overlook that, you won't be sorry. If you're OCD and you notice those sorts of things - save yourself some pain.


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Strange Magic A Yancy Lazarus Novel Pilot Episode eBook James Hunter Reviews

I've read all the novels and the prequel. The pros are pretty solid, the cons are pretty annoying so this is a recommendation with caveats. This is one of those books where the criticisms of the one and two star reviews are valid as are the praises from the positive reviews. What matters is your taste and what would put you off a book.

I liked the magic system, although another reviewer suggests that it was borrowed from a series I've not read. Vis manipulation is a very neat idea and a strong positive. The lack of innovation in how he does this is rather disappointing. Clearly he is creative in the ways he applies his powers in some areas, yet we don't see that evolve much, not just here but in the following books. Yancy internal monolog is that of a thinker tinkerer, yet he generally goes back to the well over and over for pretty much the same tactics. Initially it feels like he does this because of his areas of expertise, yet when pressed he demonstrates the ability to innovate and then we don't see it again.

As I mentioned Yancy spends a lot of time in his head, eventually the pondering about how life has wronged him gets a bit tiring, but otherwise I wasn't overly bothered by it. Your mileage may vary.

Despite its many flaws I liked this book. In some ways it's a better book than it's successors, although they have received better reviews. The fact that it prompted me to buy the others is possibly its strongest recommendation. At the moment it's $0.99 not much to risk to see what you think.
There is always a disadvantage to first-person narration in a multi-volume series. We know that no matter what difficult, seemingly hopeless situation our protagonist is going to find himself/herself in, they are going to find a way out of it until possibly the last book of the series, if there is a conclusive volume. This takes a lot of suspense out of the equation for me. For series like this, assuming the writing itself is decent (it is), what keeps me engaged is the supporting cast. Unlike the protagonist, the supporting cast is not necessarily safe, and worrying about them is what keeps me turning the pages and staying up late. This is what makes, for example, the Harry Dresden series so addictive for me. Harry has a strong supporting cast, and they are well-developed and I've become emotionally attached to most of them.

This first book of the Yancy Lazarus series has virtually no interesting, sympathetic secondary characters except for one, and I didn't really feel enough of a "bond" with that character. Yancy is reasonably well-written and interesting for an action-based story, but that's not really enough for me. I never got really engaged here. However, as independent author urban fantasy series go, I've read a lot worse. Because of that, and the low cost (nothing really, with Unlimited), I gave the series another shot.

AND THIS IS THE IMPORTANT THING. This series gets A LOT better after this first book. A LOT BETTER. The supporting cast starts appearing and just continues to expand as the series progresses. The characters are developed and appealing. The plots and connections get more complex. And now I care, and am reading the 4th book when I really should be working. That says it all right there. So stick with the series. It's worth it.
I bought this one back in January on some kind of sale from Audible, and was looking for something in this vein yesterday, so I surfed my list. Boy, am I glad that I did! I even bought the whispersync to go with it, and plan to recommend it to a USMC relative who is also into urban fantasy.
You can find teasers in the publisher's blurb and in several other reviews, so I won't even go there. I can tell you, however, what I liked about it. Yancy is one of the good guys, not a hero, just ask him. But he is an accomplished mage, and talks to himself a lot, so we really get to know a lot about him and all of the bad guys he keeps encountering. There is almost constant action, new threats, old friends and even more old enemies. The humor is wry and snarky and there are many movie/tv references familiar to many of us. The plot is fast-paced and twisty, and draws from other cultures than the standard western european. It grabbed me by the ears and held on tight.
The narrator-with-two-first-names is a real gas. He does delineate the characters rather well, though his rendering of the little girl is awful. But that isn't really important, as that is rather short. His diction is clear and voice is pleasant, a real asset to the tale.
I enjoyed the book and it certainly kept me interested, enough so that I sacrificed an hour of sleep last night to get to the end. So yes, go ahead and get it.

The storyline was fair, there are lots of hints at a deeper past and it's clear that there's a nice, complete world going on. Some of the suspension-of-disbelief issues were nicely wrapped up (with a wave of "oh, it's magic" but that's not unexpected in a book about magic). The character has potential, but there's going to need to be something to distinguish Yancy from the stack of other modern-day conflicted wizards that are out there. Similar with the storyline - so far, it's nothing to stand out of the crowd.

That said - I really hope the author gets himself a better (or second) editor. The number of spelling and grammar errors was truly staggering. (To be fair, the "spelling" errors that I noted were use of the wrong word - the passed/past mismatch happened at least twice, for instance, and a spell-checker won't find those - but a grammar checker might.) Perhaps his editor was more concerned with story progression than technical details - both are important - but I felt jarred every time I found bad punctuation, and it happened too frequently for a truly professional work. If you can overlook that, you won't be sorry. If you're OCD and you notice those sorts of things - save yourself some pain.